A Bunch of Burts

I had a sweet comment waiting for me from Kim from Frogpondsrock and she gave me this!

Isn’t that sweet?
Thank you Kim, you made my day!

Lesson for the day.

Creating treats involving dipping yummies in chocolate to coat them in a lovely and tempting manner requires that your kitchen stay below the melting temperature of said chocolate.

If your kitchen is too hot for chocolate to firm up, and too humid for the chocolate to maintain a smooth melt, you will not reach your desired effect in confection creation.

In case you were wondering.

A strawberry rose dipped in pink white chocolate.

Some mutated rose cross-breeding program gone horribly wrong.

But, the kids tell me they still taste good!

We have entered a new era in a our house. This past Saturday, our dear eldest daughter turned 13!
She had long anticipated becoming a teen ager, and after a month and a half long countdown, she arrived!

Leah had been claiming to be a pre-teen for a while, but when we moved to Thailand, we discovered there is no such desgination. Ages are broken into two basic categories. Kuap–for children, and Bii–for those 13 and older. There is a word for teenager, but it is not used in telling your age.

We look forward to seeing you grow into a beautiful young woman Leah! We love you and all the ways we can see how you are growing up and growing with Christ.

The first quarter of studies at Grace International School has come to a close, and with it came a flurry of sports tournaments. Even our Ema, who so often eschews sports, joined in the rugby camp and gave it her all this past Wednesday. Yes, rugby. We could not get Ema interested in swimming, soccer, basketball or track last year, but when the opportunity arose for 5th and 6th graders to give rugby a go, she was all over it!

There were 16 teams from 8 schools participating. As it turns out, there actually are rules to rugby! From what we had seen from limited TV viewing, it looked more like a bar fight with a ball. Of course this rugby tournament was flag only, no tackling, whew!

Ema is ready to play some rugby!

Last week on Friday, Zachary had his swim meet at one of the other international schools in Chiang Mai. It was great fun! He swam in four events and did great! He came in first in two of his heats and second in two. The events were all timed, so we have yet to hear the outcome of the events. He was swimming against some great swimmers, many of whom have been doing this for four years now. He gave it his all and we are proud of him.

That is Zach in the yellow swim cap diving in, I think his team won this relay in their heat

Leah’s JV volleyball tournament was on Monday at yet another international school. Her team took third in the competition. She, as a newbie, did not get any playing time in the tournament, but was a cheerful encourager for the girls who played and had a good time anyway. Who doesn’t like to miss out on a half a day of school to go to a volleyball tournament?

this is not from the tournament, but a game at one of the local schools. See her spiking that ball!?

As for us, well, we have been running the conference marathon, wrapping up last minute details and making sure all our ducks are in a row. It will be great to head out to the resort tommorrow and have all the planning finally done and just let the conference run.
We are very much looking forward to seeing everyone again, and enjoying the company and fellowship of the NTM Thailand members for the week. Not to mention the worship sessions in english! yeah!

See you next week!

Today is the first day of school! There was great excitement around our house as the kids woke up eagerly, yes, eagerly and got ready for school.
Zach is begining 4th grade, with the same teacher Ema had last year.
Ema is in 5th grade, and Leah, our first born is starting junior high!

You will notice in the pictures that Leah is wearing khaki colored shorts. The uniform at Grace for the elementary consists of polos shirt, available in 5 stylish colors, and shorts or pants in navy blue. But for the secondary students, of which Leah is now a member of their ranks, there is a choice of khaki for the pants and the girls can also wear skirts in either color.

There was much debate this morning whether Leah should wear the old standby navy shorts, or her new khaki ones to the first day of school. Yes, even with uniforms apparently there is still the angst of what to wear to school!

She was a bit nervous today, as she headed off for her first day of junior high, complete with class switching and lockers, but as we all prayed together in the car for peace, fun, friends and good attention, (OK, that was mostly for Zachary ), they all hurried to meet their new teachers and reconnect with friends.

Off we go on another school year!